Healthcare assistant supporting statement: cover each criterion

A healthcare assistant supporting statement answers the person specification line by line. Each line is a criterion, and on NHS Jobs the shortlister ticks the ones you evidence (the NHS Business Services Authority's scoring guide shows a tick box for each criterion), so every line needs one example from your own work. That example can come from paid care, a placement, volunteering or a job with the public.

Where the statement goes

The NHS Jobs supporting information guide explains where your answers go on NHS Jobs. If the advert sends you to another form, such as Trac, that form sets the limit, and the word and character limits guide lists the published ones.

What the person specification asks

Healthcare assistant person specifications differ. Four adverts on NHS Jobs came from a GP practice, a private hospital, a recruitment company filling a locum (temporary) post with the Ministry of Defence and an NHS trust. Adverts close and are taken down, so these links may stop working; the lines are quoted as read on 30 October 2026. The table groups their lines. HCA means healthcare assistant.

Group	The line, in the advert's words	Advert and status
Qualifications	"Care Certificate or willingness to undertake at the earliest opportunity upon recruitment to post."	NHS trust, essential
Qualifications	"Level 2 or 3 qualification in Health & Social Care or equivalent."	NHS trust, desirable
Qualifications	"Must have a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ/SVQ) Level 3 in Health and Social Care (or an equivalent Healthcare related NVQ)."	Locum post, essential
Experience	"To be considered for the role you must have experience of working within a GP practice."	GP practice, essential
Experience	"Previous experience of working as an HCA (or equivalent) in a clinical/acute environment"	Private hospital, essential
Experience	"Experience of working in a health care environment." and "Experience of working with the public."	NHS trust, essential
Experience	"Must have a minimum of 2 years recent experience within the last 3 years of working in general practice or other healthcare environment as an HCA."	Locum post, essential
Knowledge and skills	"Strong clinical skills including recording ECGs, blood pressure and basic wound care."	GP practice, essential
Knowledge and skills	"Competent in phlebotomy/venepuncture or willingness to train."	NHS trust, essential
Manner and values	"Confidential manner with a compassionate and respectful approach, placing a high value on the dignity of patients, relatives, carers and colleagues."	GP practice, essential

Read the words as well as the headings. The private hospital advert prints every line under Essential, yet two lines say in their own words that they are "desirable but not essential". The GP practice says it is "looking for applications from only those with previous primary care experience", so check that you can meet that before you write.

The National Careers Service profile for healthcare assistants lists "excellent verbal communication skills", "sensitivity and understanding" and "customer service skills" among the skills you will use. It also says you will need to "pass enhanced background checks". Lines about manner are criteria too.

What shortlisters tick

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) publishes the NHS Jobs guide for employers, How to score applications in NHS Jobs. It tells the shortlister: "In the Essential criteria section, select all the boxes they have evidenced." The screen in the guide has one tick box for each criterion, so a line you skip is a box left empty. A later screen in the guide counts the ticks, for example "2 out of 3 for essential criteria", but the guide gives no pass mark, so do not guess one. The essential and desirable criteria guide covers what counts as evidence.

The shape of one answer

Here are the shapes of two answers, one for a qualification line and one for an experience line. The short lines after "Made up" are invented to show how much one line holds. Use things that really happened to you.

Criterion: "Level 2 or 3 qualification in Health & Social Care or equivalent."

• When and where: the course, the provider and the year you finished, or the date you start. Made up: Level 2 Diploma in Health and Social Care at a local college, finished June 2025.
• What you did: one part of it you have used at work or on placement. Made up: moving and handling practice, used on a twelve-week care home placement.
• What happened: what it changed in the care you gave. Made up: two residents were repositioned safely with a colleague and the hoist, and neither reported pain.

Criterion: "Experience of working in a health care environment."

• When and where: the setting and the dates (a ward, a care home, a surgery, a placement, a year). Made up: a 24-bed nursing home, night shifts, January to August 2025.
• What you did: one task you handled yourself, in plain words. Made up: helped residents to wash and dress, then recorded food and fluid intake on each chart.
• What happened: what changed for the patient, the team or the service. Made up: a resident who was drinking very little was reported at handover and had her fluids reviewed that morning.

A manner line, such as "a compassionate and respectful approach", needs the same three lines. Give a moment, not an adjective.

No NHS experience yet

Two of the NHS trust's essential lines ask for experience "in a health care environment" and "with the public", not in the NHS. The National Careers Service says you usually need "some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship", that "Most health and social care courses include work placements", and that you could work "as a trainee care assistant in a residential home or care home while you complete a qualification". It also says "Volunteering in the NHS is a good way to get work experience in healthcare."

So your evidence can come from:

• paid work in a care home;
• volunteering in the NHS;
• a work placement on a college course;
• a job with the public: the NHS trust advert asks for "Experience of working with the public." and the National Careers Service lists "customer service skills".

Some adverts ask for less. The NHS trust advert accepts "willingness to undertake" the Care Certificate, and "willingness to train" for phlebotomy and venepuncture.

The locum advert says a Level 2 qualification, or the Care Certificate "with demonstratable experience within a Primary Healthcare environment", "may be acceptable" in place of Level 3, but it still asks for two years as an HCA.

Others will not take you: the GP practice wants people who have already worked in a GP practice. Apply where your evidence meets the essential lines, and say plainly what you have and when. The National Careers Service lists support worker as another title for this job, and the support worker guide explains the Care Certificate.

Before you submit

• Every criterion has one example, essential lines first.
• Each qualification line says what you hold, or when you start it.
• Each manner line has a moment in it, not an adjective, and the dates in your examples match your work history.

You can also check your draft against the person specification to see which criteria still have no example.